First day of school 2019

The first day of school was fairly uneventful in our house this year. We went to the meet-the-teacher event Tuesday with everybody, which was great at Latin and not so great at LeMoyne. Latin runs like a tight ship, with a great family event in the courtyard with popsicles and the teachers ready and waiting in the classrooms. I wish we could have stayed longer to socialize after dropping off our supplies and meeting the teachers for a few moments, but I felt rushed to get to Reed's school because his teacher left over the summer so he has a new primary teacher we wanted to meet. Unfortunately when we got to the school, Reed's room was locked and dark. Apparently the teachers' contracts do not require them to be there for the meet the teacher event, so she had left. I could blame her for doing only the bare minimum, but more likely the school didn't even tell her about the event until very late. The communication and organization for that school is pretty poor. I was annoyed and sad to miss out on meeting Reed's new teacher, but Reed took it in stride. I was impressed that he was so excited just to see his classroom and know some of the kids in his class. We made the best out of the visit by having ice cream in the cafeteria and looking up all the flags hanging on the wall to see where the kids in the school are from (it's a tradition in all the Syracuse schools-there are flags up along the top of the walls to show the countries where the kids are from).

Thursday was the first day of school, and it felt a lot like last year--Marty and Evan from down the street came down to play street hockey for a while before the bus came, and the buses were predictably late. We lucked out in that the Latin bus driver, who is super-friendly and great with the kids, stayed the same. Reed's bus never came at all but he suggested after waiting not too long that I drive him, which worked fine for me because I had to be at an event with the Mayor and the Superintendent at another school near his. I was going to walk him to his classroom to meet his teacher but his TA was waiting outside for his bus and he was happy to see her so he went with her and I'll have to meet the new teacher another day.

The report at the end of the day was resoundingly good. Buses came late but eventually, and we enjoyed some cookie dough while I heard about specials (art, gym, and music), friends, and teachers.